Jokers and Knights
by AngelCakes4913
Summary: This whole night is about her doing what is right... but she loses the battle every time.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: For an Anon who just made my day. I hope I can return the favor.**

This had to be a mistake.

Even though it wasn't her idea in the first place, still, she had to take some of the blame in this. She agreed to it. She allowed Cherry to sign her up for that stupid blind dating site. She gave Cherry the ' _OK_ ' to pick the guy, make restaurant reservations, and set the whole thing up.

But now, standing before her was four guys, and one of them was her brother -and he was the only one dressed up.

Well, if you considered a dress shirt and his leather jacket _all dressed up_.

"Well," Cherry is the first to break through the awkward quiet. "Small world isn't it?" She smiles big and hopeful to the group of teenagers.

"Guys, what's going on?" Max asks with a questioning look on his face and there may even be a hint of sheer terror in his eyes.

"It looks like we accidentally set you up with Phoebe." Gideon states the painfully obvious, and it doesn't make either of them feel better. "Congrats, dude." He claps Max on the shoulder, before giving him a thumbs up.

"No, not ' _congrats_ ' do you not understand the severity of this situation?!" Phoebe whispers harshly and for once Max agrees.

"Yeah, I know I said I was in a dating slump, but I didn't mean hook me up with..." He can't even finish the sentence, and he shamefully sighs in exasperation.

"The questions we asked you matched you up with her, blame technology, bro." Oyster just shrugs, completely missing both Phoebe and Max's previous implications.

Gideon follows up right after with his two sense as well. "And it's not our fault she fit the description for your perfect woman."

With an indescribable look on his face, Max's eyes shift over to Phoebe, and it causes a spread of heat to rise to her cheeks.

"Well… can't you ask for a receipt?" Phoebe desperately pleads, wishing for this night to be over as soon as she walked into everyone.

"We already paid for everything and there's like a _'No Go Backs'_ policy." Oyster he says earnestly, and maybe Phoebe does believe that they did try everything they could do before it came to _this_.

"Besides," Cherry chimes in. "You two don't even have to think of it as a date, just two people eating together... in a candlelight setting... dressed all fancy... with violins playing-"

"We get it." Phoebe comments through a tight smile, ignoring the confused glances and simply pulling her chair out, sitting with her arms crossed.

All eyes focused on Max, trying to figure out how he was going to play his cards. He's just standing there, calculating, until he sighs and roughly jerks his chair out and plops into it. Their friends may take it as a sign of victory, but Max and Phoebe are seriously considering making new friends.

"Have fun you two!" Cherry waves over her shoulder before they walk towards the exit.

They watch them head out. Oyster has to push Gideon out while he mopes something about _"wanting to be Max"_ , and they're gone beyond the elegant rotating doors.

"...And then there were two," Phoebe blinks at her _'date',_ then looks down at herself and blushes furiously. What was wrong with her?

They ordered their food without so much as glance at each other. Phoebe refolded the napkin in her lap for the hundredth time, while Max drummed his utensils against the table looking around the fancy scenery. Waiting. Not talking. Time ticking.

Until, Max breaks through the silence. "Phoebe, what are we doing?"

Their food arrives and it distracts Phoebe for a few more seconds before having to answer a question she doesn't have the answer to.

"We're eating. Together." Stating the obvious, she cuts her chicken into little pieces before taking a bite.

Several more minutes pass as they eat, and between their silverware clanking against their plates and the overall chit chat amongst the other couples they don't say a single word. Phoebe may like it that way but...

Max has had enough of it.

"Why are you being so lame?" He stuffs a mouthful of steak into his mouth and continues. "Live a little and have fun... like this." His eyes wander around the room and Max uses his telekinesis to make their waiter spill wine down the front of a ladies' top.

"Max, are you crazy!" But he simply bursts out laughing, holding his hands up in defense.

"No, just brilliant." He's still cheesing like an idiot, before he stands up making his way over to Phoebe. "C'mon, let's get out of here."

"Where are we going?" Phoebe pauses mid bite and cocks an eyebrow at his sudden urgency.

"To have fun." He grabs her hand, before they duck under the receptionist desk and make a break for it. "If you're going to be spending the night with me, you might as well do it in style."

She doesn't protest and through the adrenaline rush of passing by security two guards and several employees, Phoebe thinks she likes the way it makes her blood pump extra hard. Max is leading them through a maze, and not wanting her to get left behind, he promptly laces their fingers and pulls her closer.

"Shh, this way." He's in her ear like a catchy pop song, and she bites her lips to cover her smile.

They overhear one of the waiters mentioning something about an "empty table" and a couple "not paying" and they make a mad dash for the exit. They're laughing, unable to contain themselves as they walk the night lit streets of Hiddenville. Still holding hands, walking side by side and even while they sober up and neither of them make an effort to pull away from each other.

Phoebe shivers and hisses against the cold breeze, rubbing her arms to provide some type of warmth. Max takes a small glance at her, before unlocking their hands and placing his leather jacket on to her shoulders. She gives him an appreciative smile but he doesn't look her way, and she links their hands again, walking wherever in a comforting silence.

"You know, we really didn't have to sneak out like that. I could have paid for us."

"Hey, what part of 'live a little' are you not getting?" He asks, eyebrows furrowed. "Jeez, Pheebs, it looks like I'm gonna have to break the good out of you."

" _Oh?_ " Phoebe inquired, stalking closer, almost but just barely teasing him. "And however do you plan on doing that?"

Max casts a glance over her shoulder and along the trash littered streets of town, he sees the entrance to a club and the sounds of gurgled trance music creeping outside the packed doorway.

"That's how." He points behind her, and Phoebe spots the grimy looking club with ease.

"Max, are you insane?! We're nowhere close to twenty-one." She was back to feeling how she first felt the beginning she found out her friends set her up with her brother.

"Eh, seventeen, twenty-one –close enough." He reaches for her forearm in a haste, but Phoebe doesn't budge. They could get into serious trouble for this and he knows that. "This is part of the problem, this is exactly why I said you need to loosen up."

She's not convinced. Her chin juts out - classic Phoebe defiance - simultaneously with her hands flying to her hips. This is the Phoebe he knows, stubborn as hell.

"Look, Phoebe, we don't have to drink or anything…"

Her finger cuts him off. "Rules. No drinking, no fighting, and we stick together no matter what." She feels like a fool for meeting Max halfway, usually that ends in disaster but she doesn't want to ruin this night by acting like her usual uptight and high-strung self. "Deal?"

Nor does she want to admit that being bad is kind of fun.

 _Nope. She'll never admit to that._

"Deal."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: If I'm being completely honest I have no idea where this is going.**

Rule three already had been broken.

Not even twenty minutes into the club and Max was nowhere to be found. Not to mention Phoebe couldn't see a thing, with all the strobe lights and heavy base rattling her insides. She gasped when someone –probably on purpose– bumped into her shoulder sending her flying right into one of the couples who were dancing like they were permanently glued together.

 _Max, you jerk! Where are you?_

Literally within inches of her, she spots a secluded space near the wall. She would probably stay there the entire night, in hopes of Max finding her whenever he was done doing whatever it was.

But suddenly, she finds herself pushed forward, her momentum keeping her off-balance and she has no way to brace her inevitable fall to the floor…

Until, she falls head first into a chest, albeit strong and solid, the hands around her steady her into a wobbly standing position and… whoever this is smelled really good.

"Hey! Pheebs!" Such a familiar sounding voice, even over the trance music, it dawns on her.

 _Max?_

"Max!" Phoebe yelled, pulling away all flustered because of her previous thoughts. She wants to slap him but there are two clear colored drinks in his hands with those little umbrellas sticking out on the sides. "Where have you been?! And what on earth are those?" Her eyes narrow in on what she believed to be shot glasses.

"Ah," He smirks, before sipping on one of the straws. "One is for you."

Alarms go off in her brain. Now she really wants to smack him upside the head.

Phoebe rudely declines. Annoyed that she has to repeat herself. "Where have you been?!" It's so loud she has no choice but to invade his space.

"I snuck into the VIP section, told you running illegal clubs would come in handy." His smirk slides into a grin and there's a glimmer of pride in her eyes that has Phoebe unimpressed.

"And people wonder why I call you the evil twin." She rolls her eyes and calmly eases the cups out of his hands –ignoring his sigh in defeat, and set them down on the bar behind her.

Apparently, Max didn't take kindly to that. "Hey, you're here too." He pointed accusingly. Phoebe scoffs in response. "C'mon Pheebs, why don't we join forces, rule the lands together." He stared off into the far distance and placed an arm over her shoulders.

She shrugged off his warmth and crossed her arms over her chest.

"We're leaving." She says sternly, turning her head in hopes of finding a huge glaring 'exit' sign. She did not want to stay here for another moment.

"No, we're not."

Her eyes snapped up to glare at him, but he looked deadly serious, his brown eyes were clear and unflinching –he really believed it.

As if the calm before the storm, both their stubbornness crept to the surface. Fighting was something they did. It was something they both did best. Max wasn't going to go down without a fight and neither was she.

He grabbed her wrist and without protest and tugged her towards the dance floor. He starts dancing moronically in a circle around her, arms flailing and his head bopping back and forth –she stands with her arms crossed once again, chin high and mighty in the air. He could go ahead and make a fool of himself. She was fine right where she was.

Seeing there was no way around her giant aura of defiance, Max pulls her in something similar to a tango hold and whispers, tightly in her ear.

"I'm not gonna let you be your own worst _enemy_."

For a moment, Phoebe stood very still –almost afraid to breathe as she considered his words. It's like the world has been stripped down completely, composed of only the two of them in this boxed in space that makes her heart flutter and thrash wildly against her ribcage.

"Let me go." She wants to sound threatening, but being this close to Max lately has been making her senses go crazy. In her mind, she thinks her threatening sounds a little bit… _breathless_?

"No. You _need_ to have some fun." The hand on her waist squeezes tighter and Phoebe is sure he doesn't miss the way it makes her shiver. "Heaven forbid Phoebe Thunderman took a risk every once in a while."

So that's what he really thought. That she was too busy listening to her own doubts. Spent too much time focusing on the obstacles and judging rather than the goal. Phoebe didn't mind admitting that she did try her very best to control all things around her and Max wanted to selfishly break that cycle.

He wanted to take the very part of herself that she knew and make her get out of her own head. Well then so be it!

" _Fine_."

In an instant, Phoebe took the lead and started to dance. Using Max as her support, moving her body slowly and sensually to the music. Phoebe stayed with the rhythm, completely surrendering her heart and her body to the seductive power of the music.

Max actually seemed vaguely shocked, but fixed his slack-jawed expression with a smirk that didn't reach his eyes, when their gaze met there was a rare hint of mischief in hers. She spun out, gracefully, using the years of dancing and music lessons as a child and applying it with little to no effort. Max simply spun her back into him and they resumed their hold.

There was almost something within herself that she hadn't recognized before. That something had her pulling –like a gravitational force towards Max, and if there was a name for it, it might have explained the certain rush she felt whenever he was around.

He dipped her playfully, and Phoebe couldn't fight the giggle that passed her lips. When he pulled her back up they were close, face within inches apart. They looked at each other intently, neither of them minding how little space there was between them, but still dancing without a care.

* * *

"Shh!"

Phoebe collapses in giggles against Max, finger pressed to her lips. He rolls his eyes at her. He's not the one making all the noise at three o' clock in the morning.

"P-Phoebe!" He shushes her himself because if he didn't they were going to get caught and he's not ready to explain any of this.

He followers her into the kitchen, sitting on a stool while she rampages in his fridge to find herself a bottle of water. He props his chin in his hands and regards her, thinking that this Phoebe was more tolerable than the one earlier.

It wasn't very often when she showed this side of herself, especially to him, as much as he thoroughly enjoyed bringing the fight out of her, he didn't mind the Phoebe that reminded him of himself.

"Did _you_ have fun tonight?" He couldn't have been more surprised if she asked him to help her vandalize property. Now she was turning the tables on him?

He decides to play along. "Yeah, but you know I'm not much of a dancer." He says aloud more to himself than her.

"Yeah, but you know I'm not for breaking and entering, besides were getting the hang of it once I showed you how to lead." She pulls a strand of hair behind her ear to distract him from the blush rising to her cheeks.

"You on the other hand... what was with all those moves?" He goes on because he likes seeing Phoebe all flustered. "I think it went something like..." He starts shaking his hips in a mock feminine manner.

Phoebe laughs and pushes at his shoulder to get him to stop looking so ridiculous, she's even redder than before and Max loves it so he laughs with her.

He's so relaxed and slightly buzzed at the moment that it doesn't register that the air has somehow become tense. Phoebe stops, and her eyes open slowly. She looks at him, face devoid of expression. It makes him seriously uncomfortable.

He could see the gears turning in her head as if the clock struck midnight, things are suddenly starting to go back to their normal. Whatever moment they'd been having is over, so she turns her back and starts moving to leave the room.

"-Wait."

He chooses to focus on the back of her head, and not the fact that his hand on her wrist all of a sudden feels different.

"My band is playing at this year's Rock Stop Festival. Be there?" There's desperation in his voice, which reminds him of the last time he was begging for something from her.

"What...?" She asks, eyebrows furrowed.

"I-I want you to go."

She answered him with silence, but this time, she was just as desperate as he was. "Max, tonight you said that I don't live dangerously enough and then we did all those things. I've never felt so... free." There's something about her voice that makes her seem so small compared to him.

"You mean, you're okay with all this? You're not mad?" His face was a perfect mask of neutrality, but his eyes were not. He was absolutely terrified.

Going out with Phoebe was the most fun he's had in a while. Just having her by his side and the dancing. How could he forget the feeling of his hands on her body when they added their own steps to the rhythm. A skill she had taught him, something that she managed to squeeze into her everyday life, something she was sharing with him.

There was light in her eyes there, amidst the lying, the sneaking around. There was happiness.

Now, with the clock slowly approaching the half hour, and Phoebe's warm palm sliding against his grounding pulse, the minutes fall out under the wash of acceptable. God help him, he truly is in love with her.

"I know I should be –confused at least." Phoebe's voice is light and airy even though she's moving close to him, bringing her body into line directly behind his. "But... I'm not."

It was an intimate moment. It had them teetering on the biggest risk of their lives. Leaning over her, hearing his breathing even out with hers. He felt this sudden need to be even closer. But there was literally no category, nor file, nor space in his brain to tell him to finish what their friends had started tonight.

So, instead, he settled.

"You didn't answer my question."

They were quiet for a moment, even after everything that had happened tonight.

She sighed. "I'll see you at Rock Stop, Max"

Wordlessly, she makes her way to her way to her bedroom.


End file.
